WRC
30 March 2012All MINI crews make up lost ground.
Despite difficult weather and route conditions, which resulted in the cancellation of three special stages at the Rally Portugal, Araujo, Sordo and Sandell move up the overall order.
Rain, rain, and rain again: The second day of the Rally Portugal saw a continuation of the unwelcome wet conditions which flooded the stages over the past 24 hours, and interrupted the proceedings of the fourth WRC round. The past day has seen more rain fall in the south of Portugal than the entire country received during the previous six months, resulting in difficult conditions for the event’s competitors.
Virtually every minute brought news of competitors stuck off road, or stopped through technical issues. In order to prevent further danger to the WRC crews, the organisers of the Rally Portugal decided to halt the second day’s proceedings after the first three of six tests, thus cancelling the second loop of stages entirely. Shortly before this decision was reached the final stage had already been cancelled.
Armindo Araujo moves upwards.
"Conditions are crazy, but we survived the first loop,” Patrick Sandell of the Prodrive WRC Team twittered after the first three stages, which saw him lift his blue MINI John Cooper Works WRC from eleventh place to fourth, thus making him the best-placed MINI driver. Armindo Araujo of the WRC Team MINI Portugal could also be satisfied with his half day’s work. Armindo managed to work his up the order despite a spin on the fifth stage, ending the day in eleventh place.
However, the driver of the day was without doubt Dani Sordo, who set the fastest time on all three of the contested stages. Running first on the road, he experienced the best stage conditions, with the surface deteriorating behind by every car behind him. Dani’s time advantages attested to this, being between 21 and 58 seconds, and enabling him to improve his overall position to thirteenth place by the end of the day.
Thus all MINI crews are still on course and looking forward to Saturday’s schedule, which features six special stages and a total of 148.16 competitive kilometres. The third day of Rally Portugal will open with the eleventh stage, which starts at 09:48 local time (10:48 CEST). Live updates are available on Twitter.com/MINImotorsport.
